A microbolometer, which detects infrared radiation, is well known in the art. Modern microbolometer structures are typically fabricated on monolithic silicon substrates to form an array of microbolometers, with each microbolometer functioning as a pixel to produce a two-dimensional image. The change in resistance of each microbolometer is translated into a time-multiplexed electrical signal by circuitry known as the read out integrated circuit (ROIC). The combination of the ROIC and the microbolometer array is commonly known as a microbolometer focal plane array (FPA) or microbolometer infrared FPA.
A drawback of a conventional microbolometer FPA is that temperature changes of the microbolometer during the infrared radiation detection process may limit the available output signal range associated with the microbolometer, which may limit the overall performance of the microbolometer FPA. As a result, there is a need for improved techniques directed to compensating microbolometers within a microbolometer FPA.